The former President of the Government, José María Aznar, accused the current President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, of having agreed on the Citizen Security Law “with a gang of assassins”.
The former popular leader described EH Bildu, the party with which the government negotiated the reform of the gag law, as “representatives of the old ETA terrorism”, and assured that the government’s plan was to ” remove terrorist prisoners. prisons in exchange for the Basque nationalist party’s support for the general state budget. “Agreeing on budgets for the release of imprisoned terrorists crosses a red line,” he said.
The agreement concluded Thursday by the Government and EH Bildu to reform, after nine years of validity, the gag law, includes changes in several key aspects of the regulations. First, the interpretation of sanctions for “disrespect for authority” is limited, and this category is replaced by “relevant insults or slander”. Penalties for disobeying authority are also reduced from serious to minor, and it is clarified that they will only be enforced if the order is lawful. Additionally, he proposes that the use of rubber bullets by police be gradually replaced by means less harmful to citizens.
“In political terms, this is not an error, it is called a moral crime,” he declared at the opening of the II Madrid Youth Academy organized by New Generations of the PP. Aznar criticized the pact, insisted that the government was “handing over the future of Spain to those who want to destroy it”, and said it was not just about the gag law, but of a “broader plan” that involves the exchange of favors to maintain political support. According to him, law reform – also supported by Sumar, ERC, PNV and BNG – “is not about discussing whether or not the police can use rubber bullets”.
The honorary president of the PP also referred to the filing of a complaint against three members of the ETA leadership involved in the assassination of the PP councilor in Ermua, Miguel Ángel Blanco. The National Court determined this week that responsibility for this crime has expired, which the popular former president said is just another example of how terrorists are “taken to the streets.”
He asked the young people of the PP to prepare to face what he described as “the most serious challenges” to democracy in recent decades, and he was particularly critical of the current relations between the PSOE and parties like the ERC or Bildu, to those it accuses of “destroying the consensus of the Transition”.
Aznar concluded his intervention by defending the management of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as a model of “freedom and less regulation”, and also showed his support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas: “ Support for Israel must be very clear because it defends the democratic values of Western society and the Western world. Israel is not only defending its right to exist, it is defending the rights of all of us. »
